Improvement in washing-machines



T PATTERSON.

I Washing-Machine. No.160,706. Pa tentedMarch9,1 87 5.

WITNESSES hgaw Unrrnn STATES THOMAS PATTERSON, OF PRINCETON, ILLINOIS,ASSIGNOR TO HIMSELF AND ENOS O. MATSON, OF SAME PLACE.

IMPROVEMENT IN WASHING-MACHINES.

Specification forming part of Letters Patent No. 160,706, dated March 9,1875; application filed August 28, 1874.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, THOMAS PATTERSON, of Princeton, in the county ofBureau and State of Illinois, have invented an Improved PneumaticClothes-Washer, of which the following is a specification:

This invention relates to washing attachments for ordinary wash-tubs,and to that form of clothes-washers in which the dirt is expelled bypounding the clothes and simultaneously forcing air through the same.

The present invention consists in a swiveled pounder furnished with anumber of dirt-expellers, constructed of funnel shape, air-tight, andwith cross-bars, as hereinafter specified. This construction insures theforcible compression and expulsion of the air which is car ried down atdifferent points by the expellers, while the rims of the expellers, withthe crossbars, form superior pounding-surfaces, and the latter precludeany obstruction of the operation by keeping the clothes out of thecavities of the expellers. The automatic rotation of the pounder serves,at the same time, to distribute the effect on the clothes.

In the accompanying drawing, Figure 1 is a vertical section of thisimproved clotheswasher applied to a wash-tub. Fig. 2 is a plan view ofthe same, partly in horizontal section, on the line 2 2, Fig. 1, andshowing, by dotted line 1 1, the plane of Fig. 1. Fig. 3 is aperspective view of the pounder and its stem detached.

An ordinary wash-tub, 1, is adapted to receive this attachment by meansof one or more staples, 2, attached, by screws or nails, to one side ofthe tub. These receive the tapering lower end of a post or standard, 3,to the upper end of which a horizontal hand-lever, 4:, is hinged orpivoted, extending forward across the tub to a convenient point for thehand of the operator. The hand-lever 4 is attached above the center ofthe tub, by a hinge-joint, to the vertical stem 5 of a pounder orpounding-head, 6. The latter is, by preference, cruciform, and isswiveled to the lower end of its stem 5 by means of a central screw, 7,so as to rotate freely in a horizontal direction. Dirtexpellers 8 9 intheshape of inverted funnels are attached to the lower face of thepounding-head 6, to form its effective surface. Five of these areemployed, by preference, and they are constructed of sheet metal, withhollow stems passing through the wood of the poundin g-head, and securedtherein by means of expanding-plugs 10, applied within the upper ends ofthe stems, as clearly illustrated in Fig. 1. The expellers 8, at theextremities of the arms of the pounding-head, are made circular, with asingle stem on each. A central expeller, 9, is made of oval shape, withtwo stems to attach the same beneath the swivelingscrew 7. The dirtexpellers are provided, further, with transverse bars or partitions 11,to prevent the clothes from being'pressed into the cavities of theexpellers, which are de signed to be filled with air above the surfaceof the water, and to carry the same down, so that it shall pass into andthrough the clothes during the pounding-stroke.

The swiveling of the pounding-head causes the cxpellers to strike theclothes at different points, and thus obviates any necessity forshifting the clothes within the tub, and facilitates and expedites thewashing operation.

Instead of being formed of sheet metal, the dirt-expellers may, ifpreferred, be made of any other suitable material, as of wood orearthenware; or any suitable sheet metal-such as tin, copper, orbrass-may be employed.

The rear end of the hand-lever 4 is extended behind the standard 3, anda weight, 12, is attached to its extremity to counterbalance or partlycounterbalance the weight of the pounder and its stem, so as tofacilitate lifting the same. The weight is lifted during the effectivestroke without appreciable increase of exertion.

To facilitate introducing and removing the clothes the pounder isadapted to be readily lifted and retained out of the tub.

When the wash is completed the attachment may be separated and stowedaway in a small space, with its parts folded together.

I am aware that a clothes-pounder has been made with a singlefunnel-shaped head, in combination with an open tubular stem, and that aclothes-washing attachment to an ordinary tub is not broadly new. Thebroad idea of employing a number of small strikingpoints on the face ofa pounder, and the prowith cross-bars 11, as herein shown and decess ofwashing herein described, broadly conscribed, for the purposes setforth. sidered, are also diselaimed.

The following is claimed as new, namely:

. THOMAS PATTERSON. The swiveled pounding-head 6, carrying a Witnesses:

number of dirt-expellers, 8 9, the latter being R. R. GIBONS,constructed of funnel shape, air-tight, and F. B. IVES;

